2020: The year that shook fintech

Welcome to our end of year fintech special! (If you don't fancy fintech, don't worry, we'll be back to our usual startup mash up from 4th January.)

Here, our fintech correspondent Isabel Woodford reflects on the biggest stories of the year, our most-read fintech opinion piece of 2020 and what to look forward to next year...

 Fintech 

Fintech 2020 in a nutshell

Covid aside, 2020 was the year of Wirecard's mammoth melt-down, record losses at digital banks, the end of RBS' experiment with Bo and N26's retreat from the UK.

But it wasn't all bad. We also witnessed a fintech IPO, welcomed a new fintech unicorn, and saw the birth of a new generation of stellar execs.

In the meantime, Sifted also worked to uncover those flying under the radar — from investors to money-making fintechs to fin-fluencers.

Isabel Woodford has the fintech roundup.

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 Venture Capital 

In review: The biggest fintech rounds of 2020 

Despite a funding blip in March, the European fintech sector hasn't been short of cash this year. Overall, VCs invested $9.4bn into the space, outperforming any other industry.

Nonetheless, much of this money was concentrated in a small handful of rounds, including Klarna and Revolut's. The biggest rounds were also confined to two specific subsectors of fintech: digital banks and payments.

So readers, a quiz: Can you remember the 10 biggest rounds?

 Opinion 

From the archive: Neobank perfection is still a long way off 

Our most-read fintech op ed in 2020 looked at what digital banks really need to focus on.

Authored by former Lloyds Bank director Alessandro Hatami, he argued that while the likes of Monzo and Revolut have improved user experience, they haven't fundamentally shifted the needle in banking.

Instead, fintechs and incumbents are simply digitising traditional banking models.

So what's missing? Read it here. 

💆 You need a break 💆
 

We hope you’re taking a break right now… but if you have opened this and you’re looking for some light respite, read the chapter we wrote for the Google for Startups Yearbook, all about how six startups have adapted to the unexpected this year. 

Have a gander. [Sponsored post] 

Holiday (fintech) reading 

Occasionally, we also like to give our talented rivals a shout out. Here were some of the most interesting fintech pieces of 2020 not written by Sifted.
 

🤐 Revolut faced fresh questions about its culture, in this piece from Wired. The article said the neobank had implemented some questionable policies during Covid.

✊🏿 Fintechs debate politics in the office. Coinbase, the giant Californian crypto startup, wrote a controversial open letter telling employees to leave their politics at home. Passion Capital's Eileen Burbidge weighed in.

📰 Breaking the Wirecard saga. FT reporter Dan McCrum led the biggest tech story of the year, with the collapse of German fintech Wirecard. Here's how.

👧 Women are fintech's newest battleground. Money apps are slowly discovering how to draw in swathes of female users — and it's paying dividends. The brilliant Finance Forward team break it down.

📈 Several fintechs have eyed an IPO next year. That comes with obvious risks given fintechs' track record, but Forbes says there's plenty of positives to lean into. 

🔮 What does 2021 hold for fintech? The investment gang at Andreessen Horowitz think they have the answers.

🤸‍♀️ A very special announcement  🤸‍♀️

Fintech nerds, while you're here, we wanted to share something fun... We're launching a dedicated fintech newsletter next year! It will be a little like this one — fintech packed — and focused on giving you a look ahead.

Excited? So are we! 

We'll let you know how to officially sign up pronto. But if you want to be part of our beta testing email Isabel and we will put you on the list!